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Call of Duty Modern Warfare video game

Contributed by Alex Nguyen on Jun 27th, 2024. Artwork published in
October 2019
.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare video game 1
Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Modern Warfare 2019 serves as the reboot to Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare trilogy, updating the series to fit modern sensibilities. This included the user interface where Nat Dart, the Senior UI artist at Infinity Ward along with the rest of the UI team opted to shave off the original’s dated militaristic look for a cleaner, more readable appearance that retained a sleek military reference. This was achieved by utilising multiple colors, transparencies, soft gradients, checkered patterns, and of course, clean typography.

Until the release of Modern Warfare 3 (2023), Impact was used for the series’ logo, with minor alterations. Considering that the franchise started in 2003, that’s 20 years of Impact. As if we didn’t have enough Impact from 2010 memes, but I don’t mind. A modified Eurostile Extended Bold with an upside-down W as M is used for the “Modern Warfare” text in the game’s logo.

Bio Sans Bold, Regular and Light are used for much of the user interface. This includes big text as well as smaller things like subtitles. Noto Sans Semi Condensed Bold is then used for the scoreboard, player banners, and chat window. This is likely to support multiple different languages that Bio Sans doesn’t cover.

Curiously, ITC Conduit makes a return and is sporadically used in small amounts. The Regular weight is used. This is the first time ITC Conduit was used since the original Modern Warfare 3 (2011). It could just be a subtle throwback to the original trilogy for all I know.

Game logo
Source: commons.wikimedia.org Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Game logo

Main menu for the multiplayer mode, the checkered pattern can be seen on the left buttons
Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Main menu for the multiplayer mode, the checkered pattern can be seen on the left buttons

Previewing a skin
Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Previewing a skin

Deploying in Warzone, Call of Duty’s take on the Battle Royale genre. Bio Sans is used plentiful here for both big and small text
Source: interfaceingame.com Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Deploying in Warzone, Call of Duty’s take on the Battle Royale genre. Bio Sans is used plentiful here for both big and small text

Winning 3rd place in Warzone. Noto Sans can be seen on the bottom right for the chat window
Source: interfaceingame.com Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Winning 3rd place in Warzone. Noto Sans can be seen on the bottom right for the chat window

Modifying a gun. Note ITC Conduit being used here for the gun statistics.
Source: natdart.com Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Modifying a gun. Note ITC Conduit being used here for the gun statistics.

Unlocking a new weapon
Source: interfaceingame.com Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Unlocking a new weapon

Pause menu. Bio Sans and ITC Conduit are both used here. Noto Sans is seen below.
Source: interfaceingame.com Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Pause menu. Bio Sans and ITC Conduit are both used here. Noto Sans is seen below.

Scoreboard. Noto Sans is used here.
Source: natdart.com Activision. License: All Rights Reserved.

Scoreboard. Noto Sans is used here.

Typefaces

  • Impact
  • Eurostile
  • Bio Sans
  • Noto Sans
  • ITC Conduit

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